No consensus candidate for Iowa Latinos

The 2016 field of presidential contenders still has work ahead if one candidate, Democrat or Republican, hopes to emerge as a premier choice of Latino voters in Iowa.

That’s the consensus among Latino leaders interviewed by The Des Moines Register for their perspective on the presidential race, which has seen candidates from both parties making overtures to Latino voters — from Martin O’Malley’s Spanish dispatches on Twitter to Jeb Bush speaking the language alongside his Mexican-American wife in a campaign ad.

Latinos in 2014 made up just 3 percent of Iowa’s eligible voters, according to the Pew Research Center.

"But even a small percentage can really make a big difference,” said Tar Macias, publisher of the Quad Cities-based Hola America News. “Especially with so many candidates.”

RELATED: Hillary Clinton backs path to citizenship in immigration overhaul

The key to success is convincing Latinos that the issues they care about will get attention after Inauguration Day, Macias and others said. Many in the Latino community have been disappointed at the Obama administration's failure to secure comprehensive immigration reform, despite campaign promises, Macias said.

While politicians have often appealed to Latino voters on the issue of immigration, it’s a pitfall not to tailor messages for Latinos on other issues, such as education, said Juanita Zavala, who was elected in September to serve as the first Latina member of the Ottumwa School Board.

In 2012, when President Barack Obama won 71 percent of the national Hispanic vote, Latino voters in exit polling identified the economy, the federal government’s budget deficit and foreign policy as their top three issues, according to Pew.

“(Candidates) focus too much on immigration,” Zavala said. “Yeah, that’s a popular topic, but that’s not the only topic we want to know about.”

The Latino population in Iowa jumped 110 percent between 2000 and 2014 to the current estimate of 173,594, according to the 2015 Latinos in Iowa report from the State Data Center of Iowa. Of that number, nearly two-thirds were born inside the United States.

Latinos are also significantly younger as a whole than their fellow Iowans. The median age of the Latino population is 23.1, compared with 38.1 for the state overall, according to the state report.

That means both college affordability and finding good-paying jobs are top of mind for Latino families.

“Ask a young Latino … who maybe was born here in Iowa,” said Macias, the newspaper publisher. “If you ask them, the economy is going to be the No. 1 issue and very close behind this is access to affordable higher education.”

A college degree became even more coveted for young undocumented Latinos after Obama announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in 2012, said Christian Ucles, political director for the League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa.

Ucles believes that DACA, which allowed certain people who entered the U.S. illegally as children to remain in the country, will lead to the country's "first generation of Latinos who are highly educated," he said. In Iowa, the percentage of Latinos with bachelor's degrees still lags behind the state's overall percentage, 12.9 percent compared with  27.7 percent.

“The president has given us ample opportunity to succeed in our community,” Ucles said. “For the longest time, many (Latinos) could not go to college. DACA normalized their status to the point that those students then could become eligible to go to college. If a president were to come in and take that away, you're seeing thousands of students who wouldn't finish their degrees or go to college."

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. O'Malley, both vying for the Democratic nomination, stand out among the 2016 candidates for their personal outreach to Latino voters and community leaders, both Ucles and Macias said.

O'Malley helped spur passage of the DREAM Act in Maryland, which gave in-state tuition rates to certain young undocumented immigrants. He announced his immigration overhaul proposal in July to a panel of leaders and activists in the basement of Des Moines' Trinity United Methodist Church.

In August, O'Malley and former Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee were the lone candidates at the #UniteIowa immigration forum in Storm Lake, where O'Malley made his usual r call for immigration reform as a means of raising wages and conditions for all workers.

Sanders in September spoke to an invite-only panel of LULAC leaders in Latino-heavy Muscatine,  repeating his call for free tuition at public colleges, according to KWQC. In late September, a couple of hundred people listened to Sanders' speech at the Des Moines Latino Heritage Festival, where he called for immigration policies that keep families together. O'Malley shared a similar message at the festival.

Given O'Malley's and Sanders' outreach, there's disappointment and a perception among some in the Latino community that Clinton has not given the same level of personal attention to Latino voters, Ucles said.

There's no doubt Clinton is courting them, Ucles said, with her campaign unveiling in early October a national Latinos for Hillary organizing campaign aimed at turning out voters in early states. Joaquin Castro, a U.S. congressman from Texas, stumped on Clinton's behalf in Des Moines in August.

But these moves are no substitute for Clinton herself being present in Iowa's Latino communities, Ucles said.

"We are disappointed that her campaign has yet to hold events with our community, because we expect more from her campaign due to the size of their campaign and the amount of funding," he said, noting Clinton staffers are regularly in contact with LULAC and Latino leaders across the state.

Macias echoed Ucles, but said Clinton likely will still benefit among economy-minded Latinos who remember the strong economy under President Bill Clinton in the 1990s. In a statement, Clinton Latino Outreach Director Lorella Praeli declined to answer criticisms of the former first lady's outreach, instead reiterating Clinton's support for keeping undocumented families intact. Praeli herself is a DREAMer who was brought to the U.S. from Peru at age 10, according to NBC News.

"As someone who spent fourteen years undocumented, I know Hillary Clinton's commitment to keeping families together is personal and you saw that on her last trip to Iowa when she told DREAMers in Des Moines she would protect DACA," and a program that would allow some undocumented parents deferred immigration status, Praeli said. "We look forward to continuing to talk about these important issues throughout the campaign."

While Latinos are oft-courted by Democrats, the field of Republican candidates includes Latinos Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. Bush also is getting interest from Iowa Latinos, as he's bilingual and his wife, Columba, is Mexican-born, said Maria Mier Llaca, a Davenport resident and executive committee member of the Republican Women of Rock Island County.

The former Florida governor has been more "compassionate" than his rivals in his comments toward immigrants, Mier Llaca said. For instance, Bush drew conservative ire in April for saying that many immigrants come into the U.S. illegally as an "act of love" to help struggling families.

"(Bush) has good insight with Spanish speaking people," Mier Llaca said. "I think that he has the compassion."

Democrats are united in favor of comprehensive immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship. The Republican field is sharply divided, from Bush advocating a path to legal status to Donald Trump advocating deportation.

Mier Llaca argued that the Republican Party in the wake of Obama's 2012 re-election is "awakening to the fact that they have to encourage the Hispanic voters." But she and others worry that the goodwill Bush or others cultivate with Latinos could be eviscerated by the rhetoric of front-runner Donald Trump.

President George W. Bush won 40 percent of the Latino vote in 2004. Since then, Republican nominee John McCain won 31 percent of the Latino vote in 2008, and that support dropped to 27 percent in 2012 with Mitt Romney as the nominee.

Entering the race with a June speech that branded illegal immigrants as "drug dealers" and "rapists," Trump's remarks and policies on immigration became regular in the news cycle over the summer. Mier Llaca said the GOP should be attracting Latino voters who value faith and family, but Trump and others like him threaten to deepen a Republican image problem in the community.

"I think that they're showing the wrong side of what America stands for," she said. "They forgot what the sign says on the Statue of Liberty. They forgot that this is the land of immigrants."

How campaigns stack up

The Register asked each presidential campaign, Democrat and Republican, to share how they are courting the Latino vote in Iowa, a list of Latino staffers employed by the campaign in Iowa and any prominent Latino endorsers in Iowa. Below are the responses from the campaigns that replied.

Lincoln Chafee 

• A spokesperson said Chafee “is running a frugal campaign and Chafee 2016 does not have staffers in Iowa at this time.” The campaign did not answer the questions about outreach and endorsements.

Hillary Clinton

• Outreach: Organizers with the campaign have reached out to Hispanic voters at several events, including a fundraiser hosted by Dubuque for Refugee Children, LULAC Fiesta 2015 in Davenport and Latino festivals in Des Moines and Ottumwa. Campaign staff also attend monthly LULAC meetings and are working with Hispanic community leaders on organizing house parties.
• Endorsements: Rita Vargas, Scott County recorder; Sara Huddleston, Storm Lake City Council; Lena Avila Robison, founder of Latinos Unidos
• Iowa-based campaign staff: Diana Bonete, organizer; Sarah Chabolla, organizer; Gabriela Rivera, organizer; Michelle Villegas, organizer; Fernando Mercado-Violand, organizer; Robert Scott, regional organizing director  

Martin O'Malley

• Outreach: " We have made Latino community events and immigration events a priority in Iowa. Governor O’Malley is the only candidate to have attended the Unite Iowa Immigration Forum in Storm Lake and the Latino Heritage Festival," said Kristin Sosanie, O'Malley's deputy Iowa director. "He held an immigration roundtable in Des Moines, and did a tour of the state to roll out his plan for comprehensive immigration reform."
  Sosanie said the campaign also is organizing "specifically in areas with high Latino populations." 
• Endorsements: Nathan Blake, assistant Iowa attorney general; Mitch Henry, Polk County Activist; and Kenia Alejandra Calderon, a DREAMer from Des Moines whose mother was deported after her refugee status was rescinded.
• Iowa-based campaign staff: Two staffers in Iowa who are fluent in Spanish and organizing on the ground, four staffers of Hispanic descent  

Bernie Sanders

• Outreach: "Our outreach to the Latino vote in Iowa is the same as our outreach (to) every potential caucusgoer," said Iowa State Director Robert Becker. "Across Iowa we are inviting folks to hear Bernie's message on income inequality, addressing climate change and taking on the billionaire class.
• Endorsements:  Maria Bribriesco, deputy state director of LULAC Iowa; Jose Zacarias, West Liberty City Council member; Marlu Abarca, Des Moines community leader; Yesenia Ayala, recent recipient of Champions of Change Award by the White House; and Brenda Phongsavanh, Des Moines community leader
• Iowa-based campaign staff: Lilia Chacón, press secretary and Susana Cervantes, deputy political director 

Jeb Bush 

• An Iowa-based Hispanic outreach coordinator started working for the campaign in October, and efforts to form a leadership committee are underway in the state, said senior strategist David Kochel.

Bobby Jindal

• A statement from the Jindal campaign read: "We are pursuing 100 percent of the vote and do not divide voters by race or any other measurement. The governor is attending town halls and other campaign events all over the state — events that are open to all." The campaign did not answer the questions about staff and endorsements.

The following campaigns declined to answer or did not respond to the specific questions asked by the Register: Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Rick Santorum, and Jim Webb.